Testimony begins in priest’s 1992 slaying

Wednesday

Aug 24, 2011 at 10:27 AMAug 25, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Nate MonroeStaff Writer

Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of a Thibodaux man accused of killing a priest in 1992, though the accused has already been sentenced to life in prison for other crimes.Lafourche District Attorney Cam Morvant II said pursuing the murder case is important despite uncertainty over whether 33-year-old Derrick Odomes can receive a sentence if convicted.“It’s closure for the family,” he said in an interview. “I gave them my word four years ago. We owe that to the victims.”The Rev. Hunter Horgan’s family has declined to comment until the trial’s conclusion.It is the final chapter of a murder mystery that shocked a local congregation, stunned the community and stumped detectives for more than a decade.Odomes is accused of bludgeoning Horgan to death Aug. 13, 1992, inside the priest’s office in St. John’s Episcopal Church in Thibodaux. Odomes, who was 14 years old in 1992, was arrested in September 2007.Morvant told the 12-member jury that two fingerprints later matched to Odomes were found at the crime scene — one on a cold-water faucet in the church kitchen and one on a bloody table in Horgan’s office. Horgan was found face down in a pool of blood outside his office the morning after the Wednesday-night killing. His wallet was missing, and the back left pocket of his pants was pulled inside out. Horgan’s gray 1990 Toyota Camry, missing from the church parking lot, was found later that night on St. Charles Street.Morvant said investigators found a trail of blood leading from the office into the kitchen. Although crime-scene investigators lifted more than 30 prints from the scene, no matches were found for years. The case “went cold” twice, but it “was never closed,” Morvant told the jury.Lynden Burton, Odomes’ New Iberia-based attorney, implored jurors to “listen to the evidence, or lack thereof” in his brief opening statements.The prosecution spent most of the day walking jurors through what detectives found, including the two fingerprints that were later matched to Odomes. Mike Martin, a former Thibodaux Police detective who led the original investigation, said investigators did not produce any promising leads in the first few years.“It kind of went stale,” said Martin, who now works for the Assumption Sheriff’s Office.Odomes did not become a suspect until May 1998, when Martin and two other detectives first questioned him about his possible involvement. Odomes denied knowledge of the murder during the police interview, and prints that investigators took from him did not match prints in four photographs that Martin sent to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.Morvant told the jury that more-thorough prints — called “major crime prints” — were taken from Odomes’ hand in 2007. Fingerprint analysts were able to match those prints to the ones found on sink and table.Burton emphasized that dozens of fingerprints lifted from the scene, including prints found in Horgan’s Toyota Camry, were never matched to Odomes or Horgan.Vicky Barbay, a former State Police fingerprint analyst, told the jury that it’s “not unusual” to only find one or two matches for suspects from dozens submitted by investigators. There was no discussion from the prosecution or defense about a possible murder weapon. It is unclear if investigators believe a weapon was used to bludgeon Horgan to death, and Morvant declined to offer a specific answer when questioned. He said, however, that it’s not unusual for murder weapons to go missing.“Routinely in homicide cases we don’t have a murder weapon,” he said.The trial is expected to finish this week. Morvant said the prosecution might call more people to testify today, though he would not provide specifics. Burton declined to explain what direction the defense will take, and he would not say if Odomes plans to take the stand.District Judge John E. LeBlanc, who is presiding over the trial, ruled last year that Odomes can’t be sentenced if convicted of the slaying because he was a juvenile at the time of Horgan’s death.The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied Morvant’s appeal to overturn LeBlanc’s decision.But Odomes received a life sentence last week as a result of six felony convictions he has racked up in the 19 years since the alleged murder, ensuring he will face significant jail time regardless of the outcome of the murder trial.Horgan, a native of Meridian, Miss., who grew up in Hammond, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education from LSU in 1968 and earned a master of divinity four years later from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va. He arrived at St. John’s in 1989 and soon became the church’s full-time minister. Hunter’s son, Hunter Hogan IV, 36, told jurors he last saw father alive the week before the slaying, when the pair went on a fishing trip to Grand Isle. The boy, then 17, lived in Texas.Horgan is remembered as a fun and inviting priest who was able to make deep connections with his congregation.“He had a wonderful sense of humor,” said Murray Dennis, who has been a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church since 1980. “All three of my children are still crazy about him. He was very welcoming.”She said Horgan “could easily make people laugh.”Mary Katherine Blackburn, who has been a member of the church all 55 years of her life, said Horgan always had a smile on his face.“When I make a picture of him in my brain, it’s of him with a smile,” she said. “We’re a small congregation in a small town. He was part of our family.”The murder trial, Blackburn said, is a potent reminder of a crime that longtime members of the congregation will never forget.“Time helps, but this is all opened up again,” she said. “I’ll be glad when the trial is over and we have an answer. We can close the book and move on.”The trial began Tuesday and is expected to conclude today or Friday.

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